June 2009

During last week’s geoduck dig Nathan found this horse mussel sticking straight up out of the sand. There are a lot of horse mussels on the beach, but because they live out deep you only see them on really low tides. They’re much bigger than the ubiquitous blue mussels: this one was about 5 inches […]

There’s no way around it: work on the tideflats can be incredibly monotonous and back-breaking. Yes, the scenery is stunning, but only when you pause to look up. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r44RWD6vJA Javier has been digging clams for the Hama Hama Company for over a decade. If you’ve ever eaten Hama Hama clams, chances are pretty good that […]

We’ve had a string of really low tides this week, and so we sent the three graybeards out to dig geoduck and play in the mud. The old fashioned way to dig geoduck is to use a shovel and a bucket. But the bucket method takes a long time and has a pretty low success […]

sorry for the string of corny posts… we’ll get serious soon. But we can’t resist sharing this photo. Helena took it on a walk last fall, a season when the woods on the Olympic Peninsula are golden, fragrant, and full of mushrooms. She swears that she didn’t alter the mushroom in any way.

She IS a cute lady! On an unrelated note: we also like these photographs that Lee Rentz took of the Dosewallips River, big sister to the Hamma Hama. Here’s a sample: And on an even more unrelated note: Dosewallips turns out to be a surprisingly popular name for dogs. (We’ve heard of at least three […]

A red algal bloom started last week near Hoodsport, and slowly worked its way north. Today it hit the beaches at Hama Hama. Ever since the bloom started we’ve been getting calls from people concerned about red tide. The water is indeed red, and especially so when all the algae concentrates in still water on […]

Today our friend Preston stopped by with some wild morel and porcini mushrooms he’d recently picked somewhere east of the Cascade Mountains. Preston– who probably knows all of the Olympic Peninsula’s sweet spots for both wild mushrooms and good surf– runs a local gourmet food supply company called Wild West. He stops by once a […]

Check out this Seattle Times article about low ocean pH and the oyster industry in Willapa Bay. The video that accompanies the article is pretty good, especially the very last bit, where an 8 year old oysterman steals the spotlight.

Finally! We’ll have Hood Canal Spot Prawns available on Monday, June 22nd. If you want to buy fresh shrimp, stop by the store after 4 pm. (Call us at 888-877-5844 to make sure that you don’t arrive before the shrimp does). We’ll be able to ship raw shrimp starting Tuesday the 23rd.

Look closely. Here’s a better shot of a blue heron: The beach is normally swarming with great blue herons. They hang out in the sloughs at low tide, looking for lunch. There even used to be a heron rookery on the Hama Hama Delta, until one spring a few years ago when these guys crashed […]

Yesterday about 40 students from the Culinary Institute of America stopped by the farm to learn about sustainable seafood. They were at the tail end of a month long tour around Washington and Oregon, where they toured various produce farms, wineries, and restaurants to learn about Pacific Northwest Cuisine. The students spent the morning learning […]